


Even The Thickest Layer Of Ice Can Melt

by sleepynekoluna



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Anxiety, Both of them are just tired, CURRENTLY BEING EDITED!!!, Depression, F/F, F/M, Gen, Gifted Magic, M/M, Maybe a Crossover?, Mentions of Xion (Kingdom Hearts) - Freeform, Mild Blood, Mild Language, More Characters wil be added later, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Final Fantasy XV, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Relevant to Kingdom Hearts Dark Road, Specifically Dawn of the Future, Spoilers, Swearing, There is no YX Tag, Time Travel, Why?, Young Xehanort (Kingdom Hearts) - Freeform, relationships will be added later - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:49:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27631649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepynekoluna/pseuds/sleepynekoluna
Summary: After the events of Melody of Memory, (Y/N) is looking for a way of helping her friends to find Sora, but is slowly running out of time. After researching by herself, she ends up in the Keyblade Graveyard. There she meets a face from the past and makes a deal with them. In exchange for them helping her, she helps them get back home. Can they both achieve their goals before (Y/N)'s time runs out or someone messes up their plans?(Reader is female, but can potentially change in the future. Reader was either only spectating or fighting in the background in the past of this story. Main Focus is on Reader and Young Xehanort. Read or skip, your choice.)IS CURRENTLY BEING EDITED!!!
Comments: 6
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 01: The Deal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Y/N) finds herself in the Keyblade Graveyard and gets surprised. Sarcasm and Confusion ensues. (Warning: English is not my native language! I'll try my best with the grammar but I miss things a lot! Kindly point them out to me please?)
> 
> EDIT: I changed the paragraphs with the dialogue, since it looked messy. This is for testing the waters. Is this better than the spacing in the other chapters? If so, I will change the other chapters, so the spacing looks more like this. So please, if you want to tell me, then give me feedback! I absolutely appreciate it!

(Y/N) stood at the crossing in the middle of the Keyblade Graveyard, staring into the distance. The cliffs with large rifts spread as far as one could see. It has always been desolate in this place. Makes one wonder, what actually happened here, even before the keyblade war. Did it look the same back then as it does now? Maybe the keyblades came later? What about these odd ruins? They look like they were a part of some giant, fancy building, like a temple or a palace? (Y/N) pondered about these things every time she'd come here. She then turned to look at the keyblades scattered across the ground, rusting away with each passing day. Some keyblades looked like the ones Sora used to run around with every now and then. It then came back to her and she sighed. Remembering how Sora had left them here one year ago, saying he'd save Kairi and he'd be coming back home safe... It's now a painful memory. 

'I wonder, has he ever considered asking us to help him?' She mused. 

She knew how Sora had the habit of being unpredictable, impatient maybe, but he wasn't stupid. People usually perceived him as stupid or airheaded, but that wasn't the case. Oh, he is smart. Maybe not on the level people would like him to be, but what do you expect from a guy who was traveling with a duck and a dog for almost 4 years? He dropped out of school, for the sake of saving all the worlds! Others wouldn‘t appreciate his hard work at all, not to mention even understand it.

(Y/N) sighed once more. In the end, Sora and the rest of them are just going to sacrifice their lives for the worlds. But, she couldn't help the thought, why bother? The darkness is going to keep coming and others will pick up where they left off, just for the same thing repeating over and over again. It's gonna be the same, no matter what time it is.

A thought came to mind. A dangerous thought. Time… Didn‘t Sora travel through time during the battle against Xehanort? And wasn‘t Xehanort himself a time traveler? How did they do it? If… If (Y/N) could do that, with research and training, couldn‘t she find out where Sora was and what happened to him? Of course she knew that Riku and Kairi had found something and were pursuing that lead in the hopes of finding Sora. But this idea might be faster? It could help them a little, at the very least. She was really sick of just sitting around all day, waiting for news. 

While she was caught up in her thoughts, she missed the sound of a dark corridor opening behind her. Only when a loud crashing sound resounded behind her, she turned around, drawing her keyblade in alarm... To find a rather dissheveled and injured Young Xehanort passed out on the ground. His breathing was fast, his eyes squeezed shut. He wasn't wearing the usual black coat, but a sleeveless black jacket with red linings and a hood, a dark-grey high collar shirt with a red X on it, grey pants and the usual black boots she'd seen him wear with his black coat.

"What the hell?"

(Y/N) kneelt down next to him and squinted at him. Why was he here? What happened to him? What was she supposed to do? Tend to his injuries? Leave him be? And why the hell is he not wearing his stupid black coat? 

‘Wait, if I just leave him to die, then everything will change. For the worst, probably. I should at least patch him up and wait until he wakes up. Maybe he can give me some answers. Or at least an idea of where to start with the research...‘ 

So she patched him up, but also restrained his hands. In case he tried to run off or attack her. And then, she played the waiting game. Luckily, she didn‘t have to wait too long. He woke with a pained groan, followed suit by a hoarse cough. Slowly sitting up, he needed a moment to take in his surroundings. When he spotted (Y/N), he had to blink a few times before trying to gather his thoughts. 

„What…“ He had to swallow, his throat was dry and rephrased what he wanted to say. 

„When… Is this? And why are you here?“ He managed to stutter, before coughing again. Too violently for (Y/N)'s nerves. She pulled a potion from her jacket pocket and kneelt down in front of him.

„You‘re in the keyblade graveyard, after the battle for the X-Blade. If you remember that. It's been, like, a year. As for why I‘m here… I was looking for clues. Not that that matters.“ She explained, after opening the bottle. Holding it out for him, she added: 

„What happened? If I‘m allowed to know, that is...“ 

He eyed the potion bottle with a bit of suspicion, then glanced down at his hands, bound behind his back. 

„Maybe I‘ll tell you… If you release my hands from that spell.“ 

„‘Maybe‘ actually isn't good enough. I have some questions and you have the answers. You give me the answers and I‘ll release your hands and give you this potion. Considering that you‘re having some sort of injury that I couldn‘t heal previously with a spell, this might do the trick.“ She teased and pulled her hand with the potion back.

Xehanort raised his eyebrows in confusion. 

„You… You healed me? Why?“ His voice was still rough. 

„Like I said, I have questions. You have answers.“ 

They stared at each other in silence for a moment, before Xehanort caved. 

„Alright, shoot.“ 

(Y/N) raised her eyebrows, but decided not to question it. „How do you do it?“ She asked, sitting down while still holding onto that potion bottle. Xehanort stared at her in confusion. 

„Care to elaborate?“  
  
„Time travel.“ He regarded her in stunned silence.

„It‘s… complex… Why do you wanna know?“ 

„Might help me find clues. Next question: Are there rules that you shouldn‘t break no matter what?“ 

Xehanort suddenly found himself starting to sweat under that glare (Y/N) gave him. The blue eyes of that girl look like they were made out of ice, which made (Y/N) look rather creepy. Didn‘t help that she was focusing on him so much. Whatever she had in mind, this was going to be one hell of a questioning.  
  
„Is this an interrogation? Because you make it look like it.“ He commented and leaned back a little. 

(Y/N) frowned in confusion. The ice disappeared from her eyes, making them look normal again. 

„Sorry, didn‘t mean to.“ She visibly deflated a bit. 

Xehanort shifted uncomfortably. 

„In order to move through time, you have to leave your body behind. And there has to be a version of you waiting in the destination. However, you cannot travel further through time than your oldest self. Once your heart is disembodied, it can interact with the various versions of yourself throughout time. But without their heart being disembodied, they cannot travel through time of their own accord. Only with the help of the disembodied traveller can they do so.“ He slowly explained. 

His throat was so dry that it caused him to cough violently again. It reminded him of the deserts of Agrabah, when he had visited them with his classmates. Back then, the heat had been too much for even him, considering he was an islander and he had coughed just as bad as he did now. Oddly enough, he had been the only one with these coughing fits back then. Sadly, this was hardly the time to reminisce about brighter days. 

(Y/N) sighed, then got up from her spot. She released his restraints with a snap of her fingers and handed him the potion, while he just stared at her in disbelief. 

„I‘m...“ He began, but (Y/N) cut him off with a dismissing wave of her hand. 

„Not finished, I know. But you really seem to need this. So, here you go.“ She muttered, looking away. 

He took a sip of the potion, knowing better than to down the whole bottle at once, grimacing at the taste. 

„No matter what time I‘m in, the potions are always bitter.“ He mused. Then he cleared his throat, before continuing his explaination.

„Rewriting the events that have already happened cannot happen at all costs, it‘s one of the most important rules of time traveling. What has happened is set in stone and cannot be undone, no matter how far you travel backwards through time. Though as mentioned, you can only travel as far, as your existence… well, exists. From your birth until your death. If I remember correctly, I used the phrase 'it has been etched' to define that back then.“ 

„I see...“ 

„Also, when you go back to your own time, you lose all the memories and experiences of your travels through time. However, the memories are etched into your heart and will influence your perspectives and decisions. Potientally, that is… Any questions?“ 

He looked up at her, as he waited for her answer. She seemed lost in thought for a few seconds, but he knew better than to push someone for an answer, when she is still mulling it over.

Xehanort did not expect the answer (Y/N) gave him. 

„I do have a few more questions. For starters, how did Sora manage to change the events of the battle in the keyblade graveyard?“ 

„I beg your pardon?“ She caught him completely off guard. 

„Sora traveled through time to save everyone from perishing, after the Organization sent an armee of heartless for us to fight. I thought you knew.“ 

She looked at Xehanort confused. After all, Kairi had explained the events of the keyblade graveyard to her after Riku had gone off on his own to find Sora. How Kairi knew that, (Y/N) had no idea. It dawned on Xehanort what she meant. 

„You mean where Sora broke the laws of time and threw his heart into the abyss to save you all? I‘m honestly not quite sure how he did it, but I‘m aware of it.“

„But why would Sora throw his heart into the abyss? I know he has a… problem with his sacrificial acts in order to save everyone. But that is clearly-“ 

„Clearly absurd? No, not really. Think about it. Sora is being used left, right and center as either a boxing bag, a weapon or an errand boy. But not only that. He get‘s treated like an idiot, when he‘s clearly not an idiot. Maybe a bit slow or rash at times, but not stupid. If I explained to him how time travel works, then he would need a bit of time to understand, but then he does. A simpler version, if he puts it into his own words, but it wouldn‘t change anything if he understands it.“

„I‘m surprised you have the same opinion about him on that as me. Everyone just loves to make fun of him. Because he needs a bit longer to understand something. But I wouldn't dream of treating him like an idiot. I tease him about Kairi and Riku every now and then, but I would never make fun of him for his way of understanding and handling things.“ (Y/N) snapped, clearly upset at her companions antics. 

Xehanort hummed in agreement and said: 

„Well, he‘s my respected nemesis. Of course I think highly of him.“ He felt, oddly enough, angry at Sora‘s companions. 

The behaviour of Keyblade wielders of Light, no matter if in Scala ad Caelum or here, was always awful towards those who seek answers and the ignorant ones. He loathed the people back in Scala for making him look like an insane man, when all he did was try to fit in. It was no different with Sora, in a way.

He took another sip of the potion, cleared his throat again before asking: 

“What else do you want to know?“ 

„What about you? How come you‘re here even though the battle between the Organization and the Guardians was one year ago? You… Uh...“ 

„I died. Or rather, the old version of me died. I know that much. Even though I wasn‘t there, I do know. How I can be here though, one year after, I don‘t know.“ (Y/N) glanced at his clothes. 

„And the coat? Where did you leave that? In your closet?“ 

She asked with an sarcastic grin. He rolled his eyes. 

„Yeah. Left it at home. How ever I ended up here, like this, was probably because I did not have my precious coat on.“ He replied in the same sarcastic way (Y/N) had asked him. Much too (Y/N)‘s amusement.

"Why were you injured?" 

Again, I have no idea."

"So, you don't remember?"

"No." 

They stared at each other in silence. It wasn't a awkward silence. More like a 'tolerating-you-for-some-odd-reason-without-feeling-all-too-awkward-about-it' silence. They both couldn't put their finger on why it was that way.

„Alright… Last Question. Why did you stay, after I released your restraints and gave you the potion? You could have high-tailed it out of here. Back to your own time, right?“ (Y/N) finally asked, crossing her arms in a protective manner. 

At that, Xehanort let out a quiet chuckle. He smirked at (Y/N), before answering: 

„Well, I suppose, I do have manners. You did save me. While you did indeed restrain me from using running away or attacking you, you also gave me a potion and decided to be… a tiny bit kind to me. I indulged your questions out of gratitude, but also curiosity." He paused dramatically, just to annoy her a bit. She gave him a deadpan stare in return. 

„Since we‘re already playing the 20 Questions game, mind if I ask you some? Wouldn‘t be fair, if you didn‘t answer my questions, after everything. Don‘t you think so too?“ At that, (Y/N) reacted strangely. 

She opened her mouth, clearly trying to piece a sentence together to explain why, but then she closed it and just turned her head, staring into the distance. 

„Sora… Disappeared. We‘re looking for him, but...“ 

„But you have no luck at all.“ He finished the sentence (Y/N) had managed to piece together. 

„We did have some luck. A different reality. And a gateway there. But who knows what‘s going on over there? And what happened to him?“ She huffed at Xehanort, who seemed rather intrigued about the whole situation.

„And what do you hope to gain from time traveling, even though you clearly do have some clues to Sora‘s whereabouts? You don't need time travel to go to another reality.“ He asked, already knowing where she was planning to go with this conversation. She sighed in response. 

„You know exactly what I hope to gain from time traveling. More clues. Or maybe a little bit of help for something else that could help me in the future. Wait, am I even allowed to tell you that?“ 

„And what help would you need for that other thing?“ He ignored (Y/N)‘s last question, but only because he was actually interested in (Y/N)‘s situation. She was looking for Sora, but something else was bothering her, that she could use in the future. If she had help? Sounds interesting enough to him.

„That‘s… more of an magic related problem, than a time travel or person related problem.“ 

„Go on.“ 

„Nah. It's none of your buisness. And you wouldn't care anyway.“ 

„Oh?“ He smirked again. 

Now she had him really interested in this other problem of hers. 

„If you‘ve forgotten, I am a bad guy. It‘s my job to not care and be mean. So either you tell me, while I'm offering you this or you can solve this interesting little problem by yourself. Or is it that embarassing?“ He drawled, almost bored. But his smirk never left his lips. She looked at him in surprise. 

„Are you implying that you'd help me?“ 

„That depends. Now, what seems to be the problem? You can tell me. I won't talk about it to anyone else.“ Xehanort assured with an sarcastic tone and his trademark smirk. 

(Y/N) turned flustered and looked away from him again, her cheeks were tinted a soft pink. She knew that this could turn bad real fast and if she wasn't struggling so much with that problem, then she would't have mentioned it in the first place. In the end, she decided to humour him. 

„When I was little, I got this… Gift. I suppose you could call it that. Uh… And this gift… I can‘t control it.“ She started explaining, with Xehanort only blinking in response. 

„I can… I have a affinity with ice magic. Which is a good thing, I suppose. But I never learned how to work with it or how to control it. So it just... Develops a mind of its own? It's slowly consuming me... And no one wants to help me, even though I got some offers for it.“ When she finished her rant, she quickly looked towards the ground. She did not want to see his amused grin at her incompetence.

But she did add to her explaination by pulling her gloves of and shoving her sleeves up. Her hands and lower arms are covered in a thin layer of ice. She, however, did not expect Xehanort to click his tongue at the sight of her arms. 

„It‘s always the same with these people. When strangers need help, they help with no questions asked, but when one of their own needs help, they turn a blind eye and start casting you out. I should know. I‘ve been there.“ His tone was full of distaste. "Would you mind if I took a closer look?" "Um... No, go ahead..." (Y/N) stuttered, extending her left arm towards him. 

He carefully grabbed (Y/N)‘s arm to take a closer look at the ice. It was like a separate layer of clothing or something similar to that. When he let go of her arm, she hastily pulled her sleeves down and her gloves back on. 

„So you need help controling your ice magic? That shouldn't be that hard. I suppose, I'll lend you a hand.“ (Y/N) blinked in surprise.

„Come again?“ She uttered, her eyes wide open in shock. 

„I‘ll help you with your problem and with finding Sora. On one condition: You help me figure out why I‘m here and find me a way back home. Sound good?“ 

He could see the invisible gears turning in (Y/N)‘s head. She sighed and nodded extending her hand. 

„Alright. But if you plan on using me for something other than going home, then we‘re gonna have a problem.“ (Y/N) warned him. 

A smile slid on his face. But it wasn´t a smirk. And not in a evil or sarcastic way. It was an actually genuine smile.

„I know for a fact how vicious you can be in battle, even without your ice magic. So if I teached you how to control your magic only to betray you, then I would have an even bigger problem. The last of my worries then would be going home. So believe me, I have no intentions of betraying that trust that you‘ve graciously given me.“ They shook hands, sealing the deal. 

„Good to know where I stand on your enemy list.“ 

„Is that what you want to call it?“ 

„No. More like a... temporary bridge? I struggle with words most of the time, when I talk. You‘ll notice soon enough. Apologies in advance.“ She gave him a half-hearted smile, before turning away from him. 

He gave an amused snort. 

„No need. Just take your time when explaining something to me.“ 

„Which will probably happen all the time.“ (Y/N) replied in a sing-sang voice. He did not ask why she made it sound like that. He‘ll see soon enough. Maybe. 

„So what‘s the plan?“ She asked. 

„We‘re going to do some research on some things. Time Travel, the various aspects and uses of magic and… a world map. A big one, with all worlds you and your friends have visited so far.“ He mused, lost in thoughts. Then he slowly rose to his feet.

„And the best place to do that… would be Scala ad Caelum.“ He adds.

He noticed how (Y/N) grimaced at the mention of Scala. 

„Something wrong?“ 

„Uh… King Mickey is doing research there too. About the different realities. If there are more than two, that is. Not a good idea.“ Xehanort groaned.

(Y/N) raised her eyebrows in surprise. That was something she didn't expect from him.

„Of course the mouse would research that there. It‘s the best place to find information. Since it‘s a hot-spot of people gathering. Used to be, at least. So, where else could we go?“ He walked off, (Y/N) hurrying after him to keep up with him. 

But before the two could continue their conversation, Heartless appeared out of nowhere. While (Y/N) drew her Keyblade and charged at them, Xehanort seemed unfazed. Before (Y/N)'s Keyblade could even connect with the closest Heartless, he had flicked his hand in a dismissive gesture and they all just disappeared. She whirled around in confusion, mouth slightly open to start talking, but she was struggling with the words.

"The organization was able to control the Heartless. Did you forget that?"

"Ah... Right..." She dismissed her Keyblade and once again looked rather flustered. Xehanort found that he liked seeing her flustered. But he was quick to dismiss that thought.

"So... Where do we go?" He repeated his question from earlier, before turning back around and continuing to walk away.

„Maybe...“ (Y/N) started, stopping Xehanort in his tracks. He looked up at her with curiosity. 

„Maybe we could time travel? To a time where we can go there without any problems?“ 

She offered that idea with a grain of salt, since that time would be hard to reach, nor would they have much time to research. At least that‘s what she believes to be the case. 

„Hm… That could work. But!“ Xehanort agreed, while noticing that he still held onto the potion bottle from earlier. He decided to finish the rest of the potion first, so he chugged it all down in one go. 

„B-but?“ (Y/N)stuttered and watched him down the rest of the bottle in horrified disbelief.

„But you do know what you need to do, in order to travel through time. I told you that, didn‘t I?“ He grimaced at the bottle and then turned to face (Y/N), who was clearly aware of what he was referring to. 

„In order to travel through time, I need to leave my body behind. Which means that I have to… kill myself… basically speaking. Correct?“ She concluded, a troubled expression on her face. 

„Yes and no. Do you remember how Sora became a heartless and Roxas was born? As far as I know, you were there.“ 

„I was there. He stabbed himself with that keyblade Ansem had tried to use. To free Kairi.“ 

„Correct. You don‘t neccessary kill yourself. With the help of a keyblade, you can manage to separate your heart and your body, without dying. Like my older Self did.“ 

„Right. So I die when I stab myself with any ordinary weapon, but not really when I stab myself with a keyblade. Where's the logic? Alright... Got it...“ She mumbled. 

„You don‘t sound so confident about it.“

„Well, do I have to be confident about it? Were you?“ She quickly replied, looking rather uncomfortable. He hummed in response, carefully keeping an eye on her for her reaction to his answer. 

„To be honest, I was quite confident about it. However… At the time, I didn‘t know that that was allowing me to time travel.“ At that, she furrowed her brows in confusion and frowned, processing this carefully phrased sentence. He patiently waited for her to realize the meaning of his words. When she realized the meaning of it, she stopped dead in her tracks.

„That means that… You tried to…“ 

She tried to put her thoughts into sentences, but couldn‘t manage to do so. So she gave him a worried look while grabbing onto the hem of her shirt tightly, that spoke volumes about her thoughts. 

„Correct. You‘re pretty clever.“ He replied, turning to face her with a… sad and bitter smile. (Y/N) didn‘t know what to say. Just what happened to this man for to be pushed this far? She decided not to ask, knowing better than asking now. Instead, she stared down at the ground. He watched her carefully while (Y/N) sighed.

"Is that a thing you can't help? The sighs?" He wondered about that, since she kept doing that. Constantly.

"I think so. It's a subconcious thing. A-Anyway... Is there no other way? You don't have to stab yourself everytime you travel through time."

"Hm... How do you want to know that? Maybe I did and you didn't see it?" It amused him that he had met this girl who could see through his little ploy.

"Please. You just open a dark corridor and walk through it."

He smirked again and waved his hand lazily. A dark corridor opened behind him.

"You really are clever. But both works. Scared?"

"Yes... Can't I go with you?" She really didn't like the idea of dying like that.

"Sure you can. But that would mean, you'd walk away from your fellow guardians of light. As in, you turn away from the light."

"Wouldn't be the first time I went through a dark corridor." She quickly shot back. He hummed at that in mild surprise.

"That so? Well then, be my guest." Xehanort extended his arm towards her, knowing full well that (Y/N) would get lost if she didn't stick to him. (Y/N) hestitated a little, before grabbing onto his arm with a little to much gusto, almost knocking him over when she did so. She looked nervous, but kept quiet. Chuckling, Xehanort decided not to comment on his new, nervous companion. 

"Ready?"

"One question: What happens to a person when they go through a dark corridor without a black coat like yours?" (Y/N) asked, staring up at him with curiosity. He stared back with a startled expression. He hestitated a little before answering her question.

"The darkness can easier enter your heart and control you, if you aren't careful. The more scared you are, the easier it is for darkness to consume and corrupt you."

(Y/N) nodded in understanding, before steeling herself. 

"Ok then... Let's go."

Xehanort chuckled again, amused once more by (Y/N)'s behaviour.

"Sure. Let's go."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a lot of stuff I will explain here. But I'll probably forget half of it, so don't hestitate to ask in the comments!
> 
> 1.) (Y/N) is from Lucis. A Lucis after the events of Dawn of the Future. Through an catastrophe she ended up on the Destiny Island. (Will be explained in a later chapter.)
> 
> 2.) (Y/N) is a Keyblade wielder, but was not allowed to take the Mark of Mastery Exam. She studies under Master Yen Sid.  
> (Why she wasn't allowed will be explained in a later chapter.)
> 
> 3.) For Young Xehanort, this story plays both after the events of KH3 and Remind, but is also mindful of the events (and future events) of Dark Road. Basically speaking, I will build the story around the events of Dark Road, since the Story of DR has a lot of potential.
> 
> 4.) For clarification, (Y/N) went to both Aqua and Yen Sid to ask them for help with her icy gift, but both refused for different reasons. Yen Sid wasn't sure what type of ice magic it was and didn't want to risk (Y/N)'s Safety and Sanity, as well as the safety of her friends. Aqua did not tell (Y/N), why she refused, other than saying that there are better teachers for this kind of stuff. I'll elaborate on that on a later chapter as well.
> 
> 5.) I wanted to keep the Versus XIII Thing of Lucian People adoring the goddess of death, Etro, since it would fit into the story. Maybe I'll add Etro to the story later on, make her relevant? We'll see. 
> 
> 6.) The Master of Masters will also be relevant to the story, since he seems to be the new enemy? 
> 
> If I remember something else, I'll add it later on. Otherwise you can ask me. Hope you enjoy it so far. See you in the next chapter!


	2. Chapter 02: The Bet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Y/N) and Xehanort arrive in Scala ad Caelum. As they started to work together, questions arise and they surprise each other. Can they truly work together and trust each other?
> 
> EDIT: I edited the spacing of the paragraphs like I did in Chapter 1. I will edit the other chapters as well and going forward, I will do the spacing-thing during the writing progress.

(Y/N) felt tired. So very tired. Why was she tired? She couldn‘t remember. Everything was dark. Where was she anyway? Slowly, sitting up, after she had realized that she had been laying on the ground, she looked around. But there was only darkness everywhere she looked. „Where am I?“ she muttered. When there was a rustling sound beside her, she summoned her Keyblade.

„Relax. It‘s me.“ Whispered someone next to her.

(Y/N) recognized the Voice. It was Young Xehanort.

„You scared me half to death.“ (Y/N) snapped.

Suddenly, a small flame appeared out of seemingly nowhere. In the flame‘s light, she could see Xehanort next to her, staring down at her Keyblade. His face was unreadable, but she could tell what he was silently asking of her. Dismissing her Keyblade, she took a look around. The light of the small flame was to weak to illuminate the entire room, but she could make out the frame of a door.

„So, you managed to get out of that in one piece. I‘m impressed.“

„Yeah... Was pretty confusing though.“ Xehanort snorted.

„It‘s natural to be disoriented or scared, but I didn‘t expect you to say confusing. Why was it confusing?“

"I literally forgot everything for a good minute.“ (Y/N) explained, causing Xehanort to pause in his tracks. He turned to her, previously looking around the room.

„You forgot? How?“

„I don‘t know? I just woke up, feeling tired and didn‘t know anything. Well, at least it felt like I woke up. I wasn't asleep, right? That didn‘t happen to you?“

„No, you weren't and it didn‘t happen to me before. That‘s… strange. But this can wait. Let‘s get out of here first.“ He mumbled, walking to the door. (Y/N) followed him warily. Something about this is off. She just didn‘t know what. Opening the door, the two of them ended up in a moonlit corridor. The hallway had yellow-colored walls, decorated with black-white specked marble pillars, halfways stuck in the walls. The floor was made of white stone, but (Y/N) forgot the name of that kind. The lights should have been provided by some candle-lit chandeliers, but not a single one was lit up. The windows, that allowed the moonlight to filter in, looked rather dirty, as if no one has cleaned them in years. Dust was gathering on the windowsills and the paint was chipping off it. (Y/N) found the state of this place rather confusing. 

„Same old architecture, same old hallway. Only difference is… that the entire world is dead.“ Xehanort muttered, starting to walk down the hallway.

„Dead? As in ‚There are no people here‘?“ (Y/N) hurried after him, having to jog up to him, since she had shorter legs than him. He nodded, slowing down a bit for (Y/N) to catch up.

„After an incident involving the headmaster and the teachers here, this place slowly died out. People left, never came back. If they didn‘t leave, then they‘d go and wreck things, only to be thrown into the dungeons.“

„There are dungeons in this place? And why did they lock people up in there, when the place was getting deserted?"

„There are. There were a few... guardians left and anybody who messed around would be severely punished by them. They weren't the friendliest of people. Nor actually siding with the teachers when they pulled their stunts. I actually got locked up too, right after my Mark of Mastery exam.“ (Y/N) stopped apruptly. Xehanort stopped too.

„Why?“ She asked, looking at him in utter horror.

It made him smile. It was another one of his bitter smiles.

„They never liked me. When I first showed up, they wanted to execute me, even though I had done nothing wrong that time. However, after that incident and the Mark of Mastery, things had been different. Anybody who was a potential threat to Scala would be locked away and never be seen again. So, of course I would end up in the dungeons. I had broken the rules, after all.“ He said, fake amusement in his eyes. Frowning, (Y/N) tilted her head a bit.

„What had happened? During that Incident, I mean.“ Xehanort shook his head.

„Grown Ups lying to their students, students figuring out that the grown ups had lied to them and then making themselves targets for a crime no one would have understood, even if one had explained it to another.“

When he looked back at (Y/N), she only stared at him with sad eyes. As if she had understood the actual message behind it. It startled him. But he didn‘t show it.

„That was the short version of it. You won‘t find any records of it anyway. So don‘t try to research on that. Besides, we‘re not here for my tragic backstory, but for you. To find Sora and a way tocontrol your little gift.“

The sarcasm faded to deadpanned seriousness in less than a second. He knew (Y/N) was curious, but she wouldn‘t ask him about it more after what he had just said.

„You‘re right. Not that it… matters anyway, right?“ She answered, walking past him.

Following her, he replied to her: „Right. We‘re headed for the libary. We will find a lot of information there about the various types of magic, if we're lucky, that is. Maybe we‘ll find a book from your home world that might be useful.“ She hummed.

„I doubt that. The only ones able to use magic back home were the royal family of Lucis and a few chosen ones. Chosen either by a god before they died or by the King of Kings.“ Xehanort furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

„Gods died? King of Kings?“

(Y/N) elaborated. „There was a catastrophe that made the gods of Eos sacrifice themselves to help the King of Kings defeat the corrupted God Bahamut. The King of Kings was chosen by the gods to bring the light back to Eos, by sacrificing himself, however, in an unexpected turn of events, it was the other gods that sacrificed themselves for the sake of the world. And the King lived, only to die in the event that caused me to end up on the Destiny Islands.“

„So you‘re saying: There are only a select few people who can use magic in your world, gods died and the King of Kings, whoever that is, died in another catastrophe and not in the one he was meant to die? And that‘s why there aren‘t any books on magic from your world? That doesn‘t make much sense.“ Xehanort snorted. „Is that what you meant when you said that you‘re having trouble talking to people?“ He added sarcastically.

(Y/N) only sighed in response. They arrived in front of the libary.

Big, golden decorated wooden doors were guarding the libary and if (Y/N) didn‘t know any better, she would have thought that this was the entrance to a throne room or something similar.

„What I meant with that messy story was that because there were so few chosen people in Eos with magic, the possibility of finding a book about that type of magic here is beyond hopeless.“ She clarified, shooting him a icy glare. He slowly nodded in understanding.

„Well, we won‘t know until we‘ve tried. So let‘s start looking.“ He said, pushing the doors open.

The libary was gigantic. Giant shelves filled with books and scrolls of paper, filling the entire hall. They spread over five floors, each one just as big as the other. Giant windows, with windowsills big enough to sit or lie on, frame the whole libary. It was still night time outside, but the lights in the libary made (Y/N) think otherwise.

„How in hell are we supposed to find ANYTHING in here?!“ She exclaimed, shocked. Xehanort only chuckled in amusement over (Y/N)‘s awe.

„Simple. Everything is sorted in alphabetical order. Meaning, if you‘re looking for a specific book from a certain world, you look for the shelves with the starting letter of the world‘s name, then for the world itself and then the title of your book.“ He replied, smirking at her. "Or you could use magic to gather some books with the same or similar topics and go through those." He flicked his wrist as he said that, as if he had summoned something. A short moment later, he held a few books in his hands. While placing them on the nearest table, (Y/N) gestured around her with her arms.

„And who or what is in charge of sorting this place out?“ She asked, flailing her arms around.

„Now? No one anymore. Before there was a librarian that knew some spells to sort everything out. Which made it easier to find something, considering that sometimes a book you'd need was being borrowed by someone.“ She blinked.

Then (Y/N) decided to stop what she was doing and just stared at the shelves. Xehanort stood next to her and pointed her towards the table with the earlier summoned books. It was actually one of few spare tables that were still left from the livelier days.

„You can go and explore. If you find anything of use, bring it to this table. We'll go through it all later." "Yay..." (Y/N) was not at all excited about it. If it came to finding a certain book or something in general, she was not the best choice. 

„Try not to get lost!“ He added, disappearing into a row of shelves. She huffed at that.

„Easy for you to say, Xehanort!“ She yelled back, flinching at the echoing volume of her voice in this hall.

„Way to go, (Y/N). That was way too loud...“ She muttered and took off her jacket. She placed it on one of the chairs and went towards the shelves near the table.

„E. Eos. What could be a good start for research on the magic of Eos? The Cosmogony? Maybe? I don‘t know…“ With those words she started filtering the shelves for the books of Eos. If there were any in the first place. But if there was one book here, then she‘d bet it was the Cosmogony.

She continued wandering through the rows, when another thought came to her mind. She muttered to herself: "Another good idea would be something with alchemy. Alchemy... From Eos? Or from anywhere...?" Then proceeded to look for books about alchemy instead.

Later on, when Xehanort had returned from his small errand run of finding a map and some utensils, (Y/N) still wasn‘t back with anything. Placing the things he had found on the table where she had left her jacket, he headed towards the same shelves she had disappeared to. A few shelves further down, he was met with an amusing sight to behold. He found her staring up at a row of books. It was hilarious, really. She was smaller than him, by a head and a half. And she was staring at books that were on a row way out of her reach. But instead of grabbing a chair, she just stared. Didn‘t move. Didn‘t say anything. Just staring.

„I wonder how long it‘s gonna take for that book to magically appear in your hands?“ He chuckled, walking up to her. Flinching, (Y/N) glared at him.

„Well… I was thinking.“

„About?“ Xehanort asked, while picking some of the books of the row (Y/N) had glared at. He placed them in her arms, while she spoke.

„I was wondering, if a certain book had any information about magic in Eos, considering that it has tales of the six Astrals in it. Or... If they have any books about alchemy here.“

„And?“

„I only remembered the name of the book about the astrals. So I looked for it. And found it. Otherwise... No luck.“

„And it‘s in the pile of books in your arms?“

„Yes. Thank you.“ She replied happily, walking off to the table from before. Leaving a surprised Xehanort behind.

„Why would she thank me? I'm her enemy.“ He muttered, taken aback by (Y/N)‘s happy behaviour towards him.

In fact, everything she did since they had actually met in the Keyblade Graveyard, from patching him up to not pushing him into telling him anything aside from time travelling, was done with some sort of kindness and understanding. He had never done anything to her personally, since she had been unneccessary to his plans before. But even though she stood on Sora‘s side, she was more open towards him than the rest of her friends. More… respectful? No, accepting was the right term for this. She accepted him. Did she? (Y/N) was a mystery that he wanted to understand. That was the key reason for him to go along with this whole thing in the first place. Otherwise he would never have agreed to help her. Not to find Sora, nor to control her powers. He wanted to solve this mystery. He needed to. Although he really couldn‘t say why. Snapping out of his thoughts when she called his name, he followed her.

(Y/N) had picked one book of the pile and showed it to him.

„This is the book I was talking about. The Cosmogony. It tells the Tales of the Astrals and their greatest legends of Eos. It might be a good idea to look it through.“ She explained, holding it out to him. Xehanort took it from her and flipped through it. Seeing the detailed illustrations of an icy being freezing a group of people, he pointed at the being and asked: „Who is that?“ (Y/N) glanced at the illustration and gave him a sad smile.

„The goddess of ice, Shiva. Also called The ‚Glacian‘. She was kind to the people of Eos. She stood for gentleness in people‘s hearts, some say.“

„Did she give you your powers?“ He asked, studying the illustration.

„Honestly, no one really knows. The powers just appeared out of nowhere, though it could be because my entire family consists of alchemists. Magic and alchemy have a lot of ties. But I‘m certain that I didn‘t have them before. I was really bad with alchemy. So it's doubtful. And, like I said, the Astrals died in the in the battle against Bahamut. That was before I was born. And neither my family nor I actually met the King of Lucis before the incident. Only the queen.“ Xehanort hummed in acknowledgement.

„So it‘s not from a god nor a king. And do you know of anyone else in your family who might have had ties to anyone with powerful magic? Regardless of the magics origin?“ At that, (Y/N) huffed and shook her head.

„I don‘t think so. I don‘t know that much about my family. I just knew my parents and my brother and they were great alchemists. That‘s all I know.“

„A dead-end then. This might be harder to solve than we thought...“ Xehanort trailed off, a thought rising to his mind. Time Travel. Maybe by travelling back through time they could find out how (Y/N) got her powers? He shoved that thought to the back of his mind. He‘d rather use this as a last resort. So he decided to divert his attention to something else.

„Then let‘s leave that for now. Let‘s look into the other realities instead.“ He said, putting down the Cosmogony and picking up one of the pens he had found. (Y/N) didn‘t say anything about the change of the topic. Grabbing a sheet of paper and handing (Y/N) a pen, he sat down and wrote ‚Different Realities‘ in big letters on the paper.

„There is another reality. That much we do know. But how that works and how we can reach it, is something we have to figure out.“

„Actually...“ (Y/N) interrupted him and started writing something down.

„While we don‘t know how it works, we do know of a way to travel to and from that reality. The key to track down Sora, as Kairi put it, were three things. Kairi‘s memories, Riku‘s dreams and something else from someone else. I don‘t know what or who the last thing is, because Kairi hadn‘t told us. No, wait, she said, she didn‘t know, because she wasn‘t sure of it. However...“ She explained, while writing down the key statements from her explanation.

„The way of traveling from one reality to another is similar of how we, or actually Sora and Riku, travel in and out of the Realm of Sleep. A portal. As Riku would put it.“ To add to her explaination, she drew something that looked like a dark corridor. She looked up at Xehanort, who was following her explaination attentively. „A dark corridor, like those that you use to travel through space as well as time. Could be possible that we could use it to get to another reality?“ (Y/N) pointed out. Nodding, Xehanort wrote down ‚Similar or same as Dark Corridor‘ next to where (Y/N) had written ‚Portal‘.

„Quite possible, actually. You noticed that I use my dark corridors to travel through time. That‘s because I use the power of darkness to do so in the first place. You can‘t do that. Since you don‘t use the darkness.“ He noted. Shaking her head at that, (Y/N) sighed.

„I guessed as much. But that you can manipulate the dark corridor to travel through time is impressive.“

„No need to flatter me. It's nothing impressive.“ He stated, his voice deadpan. (Y/N) stared at him, confused.

„Why not? I think it is impressive.“ She asked. It was an innocent question, he knew that much, but he couldn‘t help but be non-caring.

„Do you think that darkness is impressive or that my skills are impressive? Because you could just as well do the same as me.“ He looked up at her, meeting her confused gaze with an emotionless stare.

„Another thing that I wanted to ask you was why you accepted my offer to help you out, even though I'm your enemy. You are kind to me or at least friendly with me and I don't really get why. Can you explain that to me?" Xehanort continued, leaning back in his seat. His eyes never wavered from (Y/N). 

(Y/N)‘s look softened, changed from confusion to a sad smile.

„Because you and I are working together. And while it's not easy to understand the view of the other, it's vital that we try to get along. Otherwise we can just go our seperate ways and would be just as successful. At least that's what I think.“ She explained, speaking with a calm, soft tone.

"I see... Yes, that does make sense." He hummed. 

"And since we were talking about skills and darkness, I would like to point out that your skills are indeed impressive and that the darkness does have some useful and impressive qualities. Also, I was quite desperate for a helping hand, so I suppose, if something does happen to me, then it's my own fault for agreeing to this in the first place." She added, laughing. 

„Why didn't the others want to help you?" "Well most of them couldn't because they don't really know that much about magic. But Aqua and Master Yen Sid do. And I did ask them. In the end I got turned down by both. Yen Sid said that it be a big risk to try and control that magic. He had his doubts about it's origins. After all, he doesn't want anything to do with darkness in his proximity." 

„Alright. But I do have a question." He was pondering something. 

"Go ahead." (Y/N) encouraged him to continue.

"Why did Aqua refuse to help you? I get why Yen Sid refused. But Aqua doesn't make much sense." (Y/N)'s smile faltered a bit.

"I think, that she believes herself to be... What's the word? Not trustworthy. After she had fallen to darkness and got saved by Sora, she kept refusing things that would require her to teach or work with anyone but Ven and Terra. She can't trust herself to stay... sane. And she can't exactly trust the rest of us, because she doesn't know that much about us. So, in case she would need help we could help her, if we knew each other better. I think." She doodled Sora's Keyblade on a corner fo one of the many sheets of paper Xehanort had brought, while she explained this to him.

"I see. That would be a good reason. Not being able to trust yourself. I get why it's so hard. She doesn't want to hurt anyone anymore." "But there's one more thing I wanted to talk about.“

„What is it?“ (Y/N) grinned. „You can believe one thing. If it wasn‘t for the others dragging Sora along to everything, he‘d be saying the same thing as I would.“

„Which thing?“

„That there are some useful things in darkness, you're quite skilled and that getting along with one another is vital for teamwork.“ Xehanort snickered at that.

„That‘s three things.“ (Y/N) shook her head and smiled.

„Still, I‘d bet he‘d agree with me.“

„You bet, huh? Then let‘s ask him when we find him.“ Xehanort chuckled at (Y/N)'s enthusiasm. 

„Will you believe me when he agrees with me?“

„No. If he agrees, then I see you as someone I can trust. And if not, then not.“

"What would change your mind about that?" She questioned, looking at him with curiosity 

„Well, That would be multiple things. But you already gave me one reason to do so.“ He answered with one of his smirks.

„Which is?“

„I won‘t tell you that.“

„Aw... Alright then, keep your secrets. I won't push it.“ (Y/N) was not happy with his answer, but decided to let it go. Still, she gave him another smile, before she turned back to their notes.

„Ok. Enough with the off-topic chatter. Now, we work!“ she said enthusiastically and picked her pen back up. Xehanort couldn't help the smile that slowly formed on his lips. The last time he had seen someone this motivated to research was (in his time) four years ago. At the start of the entire mess. It made him feel nostalgic, but he pushed it to the back of his mind. Instead of going down memory lane, he decided to get to work as well.


	3. Chapter 03: Cryptic Messages

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our duo finds a cryptic text, which puts (Y/N) in a tough situation with Xehanort. After snapping at her and running off, Xehanort meets an old friend. One he hadn't expected to ever see again.
> 
> EDIT: I edited the paragraph spacing in this chapter.

They worked all night and the following day long. At some point (Y/N) had dozed off, since the lack of sleep was catching up to her. Xehanort too, seemed to have trouble staying awake. Before long, they both had fallen asleep amidst the mountains of books and papers that had gathered on their table. Their notes scattered across the table and, partially, the floor. If someone had walked in on them right then and there, they would have fussed about the gigantic mess the two sleeping figures had made. But that was never going to happen, since the world was empty except for the two of them and some seagulls and fish. However, they were both abruptly awoken by the sound of bells sounding all across the world.

While Xehanort had instantly jumped up and off his chair, clearing the area with an cold, scanning glare, (Y/N) had drawn her keyblade and was ready to bash someone‘s head in. Both in battle-ready stances, it took them a moment to realize that it was nothing more than the clock tower being so incredibly loud all of a sudden. Blinking the rest of sleep out of her eyes, (Y/N) dismissed her keyblade and relaxed. She let out a nervous laugh.

„That was… something.“

Xehanort nodded, also relaxing. His expression was calm, but his eyes were a bit wide in surprise.

„So much for a nap...“ She added, looking out the window near their table. The sun was setting, coloring the sky a warm shade of orange. The islands around the one they were on all looked peaceful. It reminded (Y/N) a bit of Twilight Town. The view from the window was breathtaking, (Y/N) had to admit that much. But before she could admire the view any longer, someone cleared their throat behind her.

She turned to Xehanort, who had been holding two sheets of paper in his hands and was staring intensly at them.

„Did you find something?“

She walked towards him, glancing over his shoulder to see what he was looking at. On the sheet in his left hand was a sketch of a being (Y/N) didn‘t recognize. On the sheet in his right hand however, was a text written in the lucian alphabet. It didn‘t look like her handwriting.

„Did you copy that from somewhere?“ (Y/N) asked, pointing to the text.

„I don‘t know. I‘m still a bit hazy on the events of… earlier. I think so though. It looks like my handwriting.“ Xehanort admitted, looking obviously stumped.

„Do you know what it says?“ He continued, handing the text to her.

Humming, (Y/N) sat down at the table and picked up a pen. She translated what Xehanort had appearantly copied from somewhere. When she had finished, she frowned at the text.

„That doesn‘t make sense.“ Xehanort looked at what she had written under the lucian text.

_‚The fallen king, cursed to never wake. The lost oracle, wandering the realms in loneliness. The star with an heart encased in cold darkness will bring salvation. An usurper, soul immortal, shall tempt the oracle to sing the song of the end, thus summoning the goddess of the death, binding her to the mortal realm. With the summoning of the goddess, the flow of time shall end and plunge the realms into the deepest, darkest abyss. Only by the hands of the star can the goddess be freed. By freeing her, all souls shall be saved and peace restored. However, there is a steep price to pay. Payed by blood, tears and ice.‘_

„This sounds like a prophecy.“ Xehanort muttered in confusion.

„Should we... try and make sense of that? This... means bad news.” (Y/N) pondered. They both stared at the paper, then at each other.

“I think so. If this is, on the off chance, related to my time traveling problem and maybe Sora’s disappearance, then it’s better to dig deeper. Even if it isn’t, it’s still something I wouldn’t want to happen.” He pulled his chair over and sat down, earning a sceptical look from (Y/N).

“What?”

“Well, I know that this is bad and all. But what did you mean by you wouldn’t want this to happen, when you clearly tried to destroy all of reality for the X-Blade?” She questions him, voice laced with disbelief and confusion. He raised his eyebrows at that.

“That’s because… because… It’s complicated.” He stuttered, looking away ashamed.

“You’re not feeling remorse or guilt right now, are you?” She pushed, making Xehanort grit his teeth.

“Maybe. Maybe not. Does it matter right now? We have something on our hands that could possibly be the key to our problems. We can argue and discuss the moral dilemma that I have later. Let’s just focus on the prophecy, alright?” He hissed in annoyance. (Y/N) had clearly hit a nerve there. She made a mental note and pushed it to the back of her mind.

“Okay then..." (Y/N) really refuses to push it any further.

“Just focus on this, alright?” They glared at each other in silence and then both sighed.

“So… The fallen king. Who could that be?” (Y/N) looked down at the text in thought.

“Maybe… The last king of Lucis? Or rather, the king of kings? I mean, he did die, during the incident, but there was something off about it. I just don’t know what.”

“And what makes you think of him?” He asked, writing down what (Y/N) had said.

“Because this prophecy is written in lucian letters, the King is clearly dead… And he loved naps.”

“What?” Now he was getting irritated. “What does the fact that the king loved to take naps have anything-” He stopped himself, realizing what she had meant. It was a bit of an stretch, but it could be possible. “You meant he loved to take naps and was thus cursed to never wake again? Instead of actually dying?"

Nodding, (Y/N) continued. “Since sleep is the closest we can get to death while staying alive; an neverending slumber would be a fate worse than death to some. Not to mention, a coma wouldn’t be any different. No one would like to be cursed to sleep forever, living basically forever, while everyone else dies… Y’know? I mean, it’s me going off on a whim here, but it’s possible, right?”

“Then let’s assume that the king of Lucis is the fallen King, but who’s the oracle?” Xehanort hadn’t even finished his sentence properly, when (Y/N) had interrupted him.

“The oracle would be Lady Lunafreya. The King’s wife. She, too, died during the incident though. Which is what would make this impossible, but...” She trailed off, having lost her chain of thoughts.

“But?” He asked.

“Well… I did survive, but ended up on the Destiny Islands. What if she ended up somewhere else too?” That did seem to make sense, but something bothered him.

“What if the oracle did die and they meant someone else?”

“I don’t know. Lady Lunafreya was the last chosen oracle. Supposedly, she was to be the last oracle of Eos. Since the gods usually choose the oracle and those gods aren’t around anymore, there won’t be another one. Unless the gods miraculously come back, I doubt that there will be another oracle.” Xehanort sighed. Then he wrote down ‘Oracle: Lady Lunafreya – Maybe?’ underneath ‘Fallen King: King of Kings (Lucis)’.

“The next one is the most difficult one to figure out. Who’s the star? Or what?” He twirled the pen in his hand, while (Y/N) seemed lost in thought once again. Slouching in her seat, she sighed.

“No clue. It could be anything, right? Someone with ties to darkness?” She started drumming her fingers on the edge of the table.

“How about the usurper? Who’s that?” Xehanort pointed to the passage of the text, swiftly skipping the star.

“Uh… Can’t be the one from the battle against Bahamut, I think?”

“Care to elaborate?”

“The usurper from the battle against Bahamut was a guy called Ardyn Izunia. He was cursed to live forever, but perished sometime after the battle. He was a bad guy. Wanted the gods to fall and the kings of Lucis with them.”

“Can I ask how it is you know these things, when you clearly haven’t been home in over twelve years?”

“Uh… By paying attention in history class way back when?” (Y/N) tried to make it sound like a joke, but she was serious about it. Or rather, she seemed serious about it.

“And you expect me to believe that you had history classes when you were barely seven?” He grumbled in annoyance, while (Y/N) didn’t look at him. “Seriously?” Xehanort deadpanned. (Y/N) only met his gaze halfway.

“Well?”

“It’s complicated to explain.” She muttered, sounding pained. Shaking his head in disbelief, he sighed and got up from his seat.

“Where are you going?”

“I need a break. I'll be back soon.” He grunted, while walking off. She only stared after him with an troubled expression.

* * *

Marching through the halls of his old home, Xehanort felt more emotions now than he had in the past few months in his travels. He couldn't pin them all down, but he can point out his own irritation and confusion. He really wanted nothing more than to push them all down into a hole and bury them all, just for his own convinience. It bothered him.

(Y/N) and he, despite their differences got along pretty well, yet he found that the girl was confusing to him. So confusing that he needed to sort his own mind out before continuing with their research. She didn't want to tell him something. That was fine by him. But if it would help with the research, then why act so suspicious about it?

Deciding that his mind should concentrate on something else, he walked on and on, without really thinking too much about anything in particular. When the scenery changed, he stopped and took a look around.

He found himself staring down the gravestones of his friends. The gravestones were partially covered in moss, but one could still read the inscriptions with no problems. Hermod, Bragi, Vor and Urd… His friends. How badly he missed them. Back then, after the accident that took their lives, he had blamed himself and only himself for their deaths. Now he knew better. Now, he knew that it hadn’t been his fault. Nor had it been an accident.

It had been someone pulling the strings from behind the scenes. In fact, it had been his own teacher. Only the reason behind it all was still a mystery to him. Master Odin hadn’t explained himself and neither had the headmaster and the council.

A scowl slowly slid on his face, replacing the frown from before. But before he could fall down deeper into the rabbit hole that he called his mind, someone spoke up beside him.

“I didn’t want to tell you the reason behind me knowing so much despite not having been home in 13 years, because I didn’t know if I could actually tell anybody without it sounding to... stupid. I don’t like talking about it, the incident I mean. It was… horrifying. And it leads me to not talk about my past before the Destiny Islands, because of the bad memories. Of course, the others have tried to pester me about it. And be it the life or the incident, I don't want to talk about it. I actually don't believe that it would be all too important to our research.” (Y/N) said, standing beside him. She stared down at the gravestones with an saddened expression. Xehanort looked down at her.

“I never said that you had to tell me. I only found it a bit hard to believe that you remember something from that long ago, despite not having talked about it or anything...” He explained, calmly. She only nodded.

“True.”

“Why would the story sound stupid?”

“It's just... a lot of coincidents and weird things happening one after another up until that incident. My family isn't exactly normal..." (Y/N) shook her head and decided to walk back to the libary. Then she stopped and turned to him again.

“How about we go back to work? We still have a lot to do, right?” Xehanort hummed in response.

“You’re right. Let’s go back.” With that, they turned to leave. However, before Xehanort could make a single step, he heard something.

_"Xehanort."_

It sounded like a whisper. As if someone was calling out to him. Turning back to the gravestones of his former friends, he scanned the area. His eyes widened when he spotted something. A small, ghostly shadow, resembling one of his friend, stood a few feet away. The shadow waved at him, before coming a bit closer.

_"_ _It’s ok, Xehanort. We’re still friends.”_ The shadow spoke softly, noticing Xehanort’s expression. In return, he couldn’t help but stare in stunned silence.

_“_ _The others and I… We forgive you. You meant well. But were mislead. That’s alright though.”_ They continued.

“Mislead… What do you mean?” He uttered, still processing that it was none other than Vor standing in front of him. Somewhere in the chaotic noise in his head he could hear (Y/N) call out to him. Asking him if everything was alright. But he could only focus on Vor.

The poor girl who had been a kind soul to everyone she met.

_“So you don’t know… Then I guess you’ll find out soon enough.”_ She smiled at Xehanort.

_“_ _She can help you with this, you know? Let her help. Trust me, it’ll be worth it in the end.”_ Vor gestured to (Y/N), who was now standing next to Xehanort. (Y/N) blinked in surprise, while his brain was working hard to process everything.

“Why…?”

_“Oops, I have to go or else I’ll get in trouble with the others. But I thought that you should know this. Maybe I’ll see you again. Next time I’ll make sure the others come too!”_ Vor bid him farewell with those words, sounding cheerful. Xehanort didn’t manage to react at all. Before he could even open his mouth, Vor was gone. (Y/N) chose to stay silent. She only put a hand on Xehanort’s shoulder in comfort.

He was staring at the spot Vor had previously stood in with a pained expression.

“I don’t get it… What did she mean?” he spluttered.

"I wish I knew... Who was that?" (Y/N) mumbled, mostly to herself, rather than to him.

"An... old friend..."

"Hm... I see. Then..." She dropped her hand from his shoulder and put it to her chin, thinking for a bit. Xehanort wasn't even really listening to her, only when she continued, she got his attention. "Let me help you find out what she meant!" She exclaimed, putting her hands to her chest and crossing them there. Her face wore a determined expression.

Vor's words echoed in his head. Should he trust her? Would it hurt to try? Would he end up regretting it?

"I need some time to think about this, if that's alright with you?" He finally said, not having an answer yet. (Y/N) just smiled at him and nodded.

"Don't worry, the offer still stands later on too. Let's just return to the libary for now, ok?"

"Alright... Thanks..."

"You're welcome."


	4. Chapter 04: Hope of one heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the shock from before Xehanort does not feel like doing more research. Instead, he and (Y/N) decide to train a little or at least figure out how the other fights. After an amusing conversation about some people, Xehanort finds out a rather shocking truth about himself and (Y/N) finds that Xehanort can be, at times, a big dork.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: I had to change this chapter from the ground up, since I really didn't like how Chapter 04 and 05 were written. I hope this actually sounds less cringey than the previous version.

The duo returned to the libary. Xehanort stopped in his tracks before he entered and spoke up.

"Actually..." Making (Y/N) stop. "How about doing something else? That prophecy won't run off. And overanalyzing it won't do us any good either."

(Y/N) turned to him, her eyebrows raised in confusion. Crossing her arms, she replied: "That's fine by me, but what do you want to do? I mean... We have plenty of objectives, but which one should we tackle next?"

"How about... Sora?"

"Sora? You mean looking into the other reality again? I told you everything I know about that. And it's not like we can just look for books talking about that topic. We can only speculate."

"That is true... Then... Your magic? I didn't get to see how good you are with your magic. It would be a good thing to learn about your abilities for future battles." He offered, not really knowing what else they could do. Xehanort was still at a loss for words, after what had transpired earlier. It bothered him. All of it. And after that he didn't really want to sit down in the libary and analyze some ancient prophecy to which they had barely any clues for. He felt more like blowing off some steam. From the looks of it, (Y/N) didn't seem to mind.

"Sure. Sounds good to me. I've heard that you're quite the vicious fighter. It would make a good lesson for both of us." She agreed, seemingly excited at the idea of getting to spar with him. So they kept walking.

Xehanort led (Y/N) to a wide plaza, right next to the sea. It had wind mills surrounding it and a strange pattern covered the ground. There were metal plates with inscriptions and odd glass-like spots that for some reason showed pink reflections of things nearby. In the middle was a flower with pink crystals and white circles surrounded by black stone in the center. It was interesting to look at, but she didn't quite get what this was supposed to be. From the metal plates with the inscriptions she could at least tell that this place had a deeper meaning.

"What is this place?"

"A special stage for the keyblade wielders that partake in the mark of mastery exam. A part of the mark of mastery exam, at least." "A part? So there's multiple parts or phases to the mark of mastery?" "Correct. There's the written test, the fighting test and the practical test. Each phase has it's traps and most of the time, no keyblade wielder would get past the fighting test.But if they did, then they would fail the practical test for sure. Only the most skilled and intelligent ones pass all three. It was a hard thing to pass, the mark of mastery. Some wielders stayed wielders for all of their lives, while few managed to become masters. Not everyone is fit to be a master, much less even a reliable keyblade wielder." Xehanort explained this with an robotic tone, like he was bored of explaining.

"Ok... But you clearly passed."

"I will pass. I have not yet participated in it."

"I see. So right now, we're on the same... level? No, that's not right..." (Y/N) trailed off, thinking of a better way to put it. She didn't want to put him in the same spot as her, since she knew that he was probably way better than her. But he didn't seem to take any offense to that.

He raised his hand and said: "No, you're correct. Right now, the two of us are still keyblade wielders. However, you have participated in the mark of mastery exam and couldn't finish it. For obvious reasons, of course. So that's a difference. Not quite the same, but... it's there." She nodded.

"That's true."

"Well then, shall we get started? If we dawdle any more, the sun will go down and we'd have to fight in the dark." (Y/N) snorted at that.

"But that would put you at an advantage, right?"

"While that would be true, I would probably not be able to see a thing. Just because I can use darkness doesn't mean I can see in the dark." He pointed out, chuckling in amusement. (Y/N) hummed in acknowledgement and summoned her keyblade.

"Guess that's true. Oh well, let's get started then. No time like the present."

He readied himself by summoning his own keyblade and just like that they were exchanging blows instead of questions and comments.

He had to admit though, that (Y/N) was quite a vicious fighter herself. She was able to deal quick, harsh attacks and use magic with an ease that put other wielders like himself to shame. He was skilled with magic, but his forte were mainly ice spells and, of course, time magic. But he noticed how she let her guard down, when she was a few feet away from him. It would be easy for him to appear right behind her and deal a lethal blow, but he beat that idea down while he still could.

She was still his enemy, but he wasn't so stupid as to kill her right here, when she had made a deal with him. He was a man of his word. Or rather, he still was. He was uncertain of how he would deal with these kind of things in the future. But this was hardly the right time to ponder about the future. 

Deciding that catching her off guard would be a better idea than swooping in and deal a lethal blow, he turned his keyblade into a whip and attacked her from where he was standing. Since she was a few feet away from him and would most likely use a magic spell to blast him away from her, this seemed like a safer option. And it worked quite well, too. (Y/N) had not expected to get hit by a whip, so she barely managed to dodge that.

But Xehanort had made a mistake by using his whip to catch her off guard. The dust and smoke that came with that attack gave (Y/N) a cover to surprise him. She moved so quick that he had barely any time to register what just happened. Using the smoke as a cover, she had managed to cast a wind spell to blind him for a short moment. And that short moment was all she needed.

After casting Aeroga and thus blinding him, she appeared behind him and (although it was a dirty trick) kicked him in the knees. He collapsed and found himself at the other end of her keyblade, while (Y/N) had another aero spell at the ready. Both were breathing heavily, although Xehanort had not moved as much as (Y/N) did. Staring her keyblade down, before looking up at her, he dismissed his keyblade. 

"That... was impressive. Mean and impressive." He commended.

"Have to even out the height difference somehow, don't I?" She panted, dismissing the aero spell, but keeping her keyblade in her hand, just in case he wanted to get back at her with a dirty trick like she had. 

He responded with a short laugh. "Was that all you were worried about?" He inquired, a smirk still sitting on his lips. 

She rolled her eyes, then offered him a hand to help him up. "No, but it bothered me a bit." 

He looked at her hand in surprise, but took it. She pulled him to his feet, before letting go. 

"You're pretty strong, comes with the height difference. As well as training. So I had to do something that could at least make me look less like a weak wielder." She muttered the last part, looking away from him.

That piqued his curiousity. "Weak? I never said that you were weak. What makes you think you're weak?" He asked, his voice soft. The fact that she thought of herself as weak made him sad. Why exactly it made him sad, he didn't know. But it was sad to see her talk down on herself like that. 

(Y/N) sighed. "I've heard it time and time again." She droned. "'You're so short and weak.' or 'You look like a kid, are you even able to lift a sword?'. All those stupid comments about me being short and thus, being weak, are thrown at me. Left, right aand center. And I'm sick of that. I mean, yes, I fight mostly in the back while others claim all the spotlight and fame, but what do I care about that? I'm not weak just because I'm short or because I'm rather in the background." She started ranting. 

Xehanort just realized that he had stepped on a landmine.

And he felt like he was about to get murdered, should he say the wrong thing.

"You're pretty strong. And I'm certain, even without a keyblade or any weapon, you're able to get some mean punches in." He said, genuinly meaning it. She stared up at him for a while.

Then she said: "Would you like to find out?"

"No, thank you. My knees are proof enough for that." He quickly replied, panic slowly rising. She started laughing, startling him. 

"I was joking. But, thank you."

He blinked. A beat passed. Two. "Who insulted you?"

"Uh..." She looked perplexed. "Why do you wanna know?"

"Just for the hell of it. Humour me." 

"Some of my companions. Like Lea or Cloud or Leon. Or some people from the organization. Isa, Larxene, Marluxia, Vanitas too." 

"Did you prove them wrong?" 

"Of course. Well, when I got the chance to. I couldn't prove Vanitas or Leon wrong, but the others were rather impressed." 

"What about all those masters around you? Aqua, Yen Sid, Riku... The mouse." 

"Two things. One: Aside from Riku, none of them has seen me ever fight, nor have they actually commented on it. They only refused to teach me, but without knowing what I can do. Two: Do you actually refuse to say Mickey's name?" (Y/N) smirked in amusement, poking at him.

"I refuse to even look at that damned mouse for longer than three seconds, because he's a pain in my ass. He always will be. As for the rest, it doesn't make any sense to me why they refuse to teach you, when they don't know much about how you fight. Only that you're not able to control that ice magic of yours is not much to go by, honestly." He grunted in response, swatting her hand away, earning a laugh from (Y/N).

"I didn't think I would ever hear the composed and well-spoken Xehanort swear like that." She laughed. "But in all honesty, I don't really care about the masters not teaching me. It's not like I learned fighting from a master. I am self-taught. Mostly self-taught." (Y/N) explained, shrugging at the end of her sentence. 

"Hmpf... It's nothing compared to when I get pissed off... But that aside, that just proves my point of people only judging a book by it's cover and not wanting to have anything to do with it. Prime example." Xehanort sighed, looking to the horizon. The sun had begun to set again. They had started training late. That was going to change though. No way he'd sleep through half a day and then get almost nothing done. 

"Do you think... People like that can change?" He wondered, continuing staring off at the horizon.

"To accept people like you and me? Not really, honestly. The only one I believe to be able to prove them all wrong, and I suppose us too, is Sora. He's always been a miracle worker." She answered, her voice quiet, but soft.

"Sora... I agree. But do you think he'd ever tolerate me working with you? To help you?"

"A little faith doesn't hurt, does it? Sora has faith in everyone and is also ready to give someone a second chance. He's able to forgive, but he won't forget. The only problem with him is that he goes with the majority of people most of the time. They drag him along, then when he speaks up, he gets shot down. So he keeps it to himself until he's given a chance to speak up without fearing to be reprimanded by everyone. He does that when it's just him. I've seen that."

"I haven't." 

"It's defintely hard to believe. But it's true. Maybe, one day, you can meet the real Sora." (Y/N) said, fondly.

Xehanort turned to her. She smiled softly at him and had her hands stuffed into the pockets of jacket. The sight made him think of Eraqus. He gave a small snort.

"He would do the same you're doing right now. He'd have the same smile on his lips and put his hands in his pockets and go: "Nothing can stop me.". And then he would always run when faced with an strong enemy. Except from me. He'd run at me, instead of running from me. And laugh and talk about chess and act like nothing's wrong. You and he are similar in that aspect." He reminisced, a sad smile on his lips.

(Y/N)'s smile fell a bit. "You mean Eraqus, right?" 

"Yeah. Tardy Fleetfoot. That's his nickname. He's a goofy happy-go-lucky guy, but if you piss him off, you'd be met with cold rage and no mercy." 

"... Tardy Fleetfoot? Who came up with that name?" She giggled at the nickname. He couldn't help but laugh too. 

"I actually don't know. He already had that name when I arrived here. I'm guessing that it was one of my fellow classmates. But it fits well." 

"Sounds like the two of you are good buddies." 

Xehanort's smile fell at that. "We used to be. Nowadays we just... argue or fight all the time." 

"Oh..." (Y/N) wasn't sure how she should respond to that. "Sorry..."

"It's fine. You didn't know. Hell, for all I know, the Eraqus of the future could be my friend again. Maybe we get over that whole thing and just move on?" He replied, sounding quite hopeful. He had his sight set on the horizon again and thus, couldn't see (Y/N)'s face going white as a sheet of paper. 

"He doesn't know...?" She whispered quietly. Shocked at the fact that Xehanort, this Xehanort, had no idea of what happened to the late master Eraqus. It's as if the old man had never bothered to tell him. But if he didn't know, then she shouldn't tell him. Otherwise she'd have his keyblade at her throat. She wouldn't even know how to start to explain that.

"Did just say something?" Xehanort looked at her again, seeing her puzzled expression. He had heard he say something, but didn't catch it. (Y/N) panicked and stammered: "Oh, no. No! I was just talking to myself! I- I thought it would be nice if that happened!"

He frowned at that. "You haven't met Eraqus, have you?"

"No. I've never met him. Only heard bit and pieces about him here and there." 

"I see. So you wouldn't know if he's still around, right?" He asked. 

(Y/N) was sweating buckets now. She really didn't want to piss Xehanort off. She could deal with an angry Isa, but not an angry Xehanort. 

"Is this a trick question?" In hindsight, this was the **worst** choice of an answer she could have given him.

"What? No."

"Uh..."

"So do you or do you not know?" Now he was growing impatient. He could cleary tell that she knew _something_ , but refused to tell him.

"I... do know. I'm just not sure if I'm allowed to tell you. You know. Because of time travel." She stuttered.

"... I forget about it anyway, when I get back to my own time..." He reminded her.

"..." She regarded him with a guilty look. Only after a few moments she quietly started speaking again.

"I'm probably the last person you would want to hear this from... But... Master Eraqus died a few years ago. I don't know the reason, but I do know that it happened... I'm sorry... I didn't know that you... didn't know..." She avoided looking at him when she said that. Xehanort stayed silent for a while.

"I... mean, it's not... an easy thing... to talk about. For anybody." (Y/N) continued, trying her hardest not to upset him even more. It was clear from the silence that he was upset. When she did finally look at him, she was met with an heartbreaking sight. Xehanort's expression radiated sadness with every fiber of his being. His eyes were cast downwards, lips pulled into a thin line, his hands curled up into fists. He was shaking and trying his hardest not to show it.

"So... What the old man and Vanitas said... It was true...?" He whispered, his voice shaking. 

"... What did they tell you?"

"That I killed him... Because he would get in the way of the plan. And neither even bat an eye when they told me. I believed it to be a lie. I was a fool..."

"... I don't know the details. I only know that the old man was there when it happened..."

"And that alone is proof enough." He uttered, his face scrunched up in pain. "Did we ever reconsile? Or is all of this in vain?" He asked, choking up.

"I'm sorry. I don't know..." (Y/N) answered quietly, walking slowly closer to him. 

"Then what is it I'm doing?! What was all that planning and fighting for?" He snapped, startling (Y/N), who took a step backwards at that.

"... I really do not know what it is what the old man told you, but... He wanted to purge the darkness from all of reality. By destroying everything. And then rebuilding it with Kingdom Hearts. Pure, bright and empty... That's what he told us..." 

"I know that the goal was to get rid of darkness, by becoming darkness itself, but that? All of those sacrifices and the plan? It was all for one thing. Only one thing. And I destroyed it..." 

"You wanted to save them... Didn't you? The people whose graves you stood at, the girl that talked to you then, Eraqus... You did that for them..."

"I wanted to believe that it wasn't true. That I didn't do it. But now...? Now it's just..."

"Xehanort. Answer me this one question: Did you want to save those people? The people you care about?" (Y/N) spoke with an serious tone, different to what she had been doing up until then. 

He looked up at her and saw a unreadable expression on her face. She stared up at him, standing right in front of him. "...Yes." He answered after a long pause. 

"Then we'll do that." 

"What do you mean?"

"Did I stutter? I said: 'Then we'll do that.'. As in: We're going to save them. And we'll do it in a way that doesn't cause a big catastrophe." She replied deadpan.

He looked at her in surprise. She was determined to pull this off. But...

"But we can't change history..." He pointed out.

"Watch me do it then." She shot back, catching him off-guard.

"Didn't you listen? I said-" 

"You said we can't change history. But who says that? Who makes the rules of time traveling? Fate? God? Time? No. No one. Not. A. Single. One. I know, that it is hard to do and that it appears impossible. But it only appears impossible. Appear doesn't mean it truly is."

"... You sound like Sora."

"Where do you think he's got it from? I'm like an older sister to him. I babysat him all the damn time!" 

Xehanort blinked at her in surprise, then started laughing. 

"What's so funny?" 

"The fact that I'm getting a pep-talk from my enemy is suddenly extremely hilarious to me."

"Glad to see that you haven't lost your sense of humour. But something in that sentence needs correcting."

"And what would that be?"

"We aren't enemies. We are partners. We're working together. You haven't forgotten, have you?"

He felt the smile on his face grow wider. "You're right. Then... Where would you like to start with our history-chaging adventure?"

"Now that sounds promising! Well... Since you're asking... How about we make sure your other friends are okay first? I believe they were in trouble first?"

"Good guess. How do you know?" The sarcastic tone that slipped into his voice when he spoke was unintentional.

"I can read, idiot." She deadpanned, glaring at him. But it gave way to a soft smile. "But I'm glad that I was able to cheer you up." After a short pause she continued, flustered: "I mean, I would do it either way, but if you're down in the dumps, then I can't do it... No, wait... I mean-" 

"I get it. Thank you... I appreciate it." He smiled at her. A genuine smile.

"No need. If I was in your shoes, I would want to save them too. And besides, we already have proof of one being able to change history." 

"Who?" 

"Sora? I mean, we talked about this!" She looked at him incredulously. 

"...Right."

"I think you need to sleep or something."

"Yeah... Yeah, I think you're right." Xehanort couldn't agree more. He had enough for one day. And sleep, proper sleep, was much needed.

"Then how about this? We rest up, then we decide where to go and when to go and then we go?" (Y/N) proposed, resting a hand on her chin, thinking.

"And then we go... Sounds like a plan."

"Alright!" (Y/N) cheered and they started walking off. As they did, (Y/N) took the lead and Xehanort trailed behind. He regarded her with a soft smile, then scoffed playfully. 

"That girl... I did get warned. She is dangerous. But not in a way anyone would expect..."

Then he glanced up at the castle that sat on top of the town. 

"Tomorrow we'll save you guys... I wish... I wish it goes well." In that sentence was so much hope. Hope that someone else had given him. And for that, he was incredibly grateful. Just like that, his worries slipped away.


	5. Chapter 05: Time Travel has it's perks... and it's downsides

The next day, the duo stood at the 'entrance' of the town, staring off into the sea, while going through multiple ideas of where to start. Of course, this requires Xehanort to tell (Y/N) of his old friends and what had happened to them. Not everything, but some of it. The girl quietly listened to his story and stayed silent when he finished. He was aware of the fact that it was a lot to take in, but expected her to at least ask one question in the middle of his story. "Don't you have any questions?" He wondered, crossing his arms and leaning back against the fence that lined the pier they stood at. Looking over to (Y/N), he saw her stare at the sea, a frown on her lips. "Well... Yeah. But these can wait, no?" "Why wait? I can answer some of them." He offered, but she shook her head 'no'. "It's alright. Let's just focus on the task at hand first. I can always ask later, right?" "Do you really want to save some people you have never met? This can go wrong fast." "I know. But... I wanna help. I... feel useless. Most of the time I get asked to help and then I don't even get the chance to do so, because they resolved it themselves." (Y/N) explained. "And that's why you want to help me? Your enemy- or current partner in crime?" Xehanort's voice was laced with sarcasm. Her reason seemed so... ridiculous to him. It was noble, but also foolish. She shook her head once more. "Partner in crime. Not enemy. You offered to help me, so I feel like I should help you. Is that a bad thing to do?" She looked up at him, pouting. He stared back, before shrugging. "I suppose it's not." "Then we can concentrate on how to proceed." This caused him to sigh in defeat. The girl really was a mystery to him. "Fine. We should observe first, before we go and attempt saving them. That's what I think would be best." "That's a good idea. Where should we start? Sometime before it all goes down, but after you guys started your search?" "Hm... Beast's Castle would be a good place to start. It would fit the criteria." "Ah... You mean the castle with the cursed staff?" "Do you know of another world where a beast is the master of a castle including cursed staff that looks like objects? If so, please do tell me about it." "You had to be sarcastic... I've never been to that world, that's why I'm asking. Sora told me about it." "But you clearly knew which world I was referring to. Then why ask?" "To confirm it. Now, can it and let's just go..." "Someone doesn't like sarcasm... Alright, then." (Y/N) rolled her eyes at Xehanort's comment, while he opened a dark corridor. He then turned and bowed to her, mockingly. Grunting in annoyance, she walked past him through it. "Oh, so this time you don't want to hang onto me like a koala?" He quipped, before following her. He did not, however, expect the punch thrown his way as soon as he emerged from the corridor. Barely dodging it, he ended up getting punched in the shoulder. And then he noticed that it was way too warm for a winter world like Beast's Castle. Instead he stood in the middle of a desert. A familiar desert. He groaned. "You've got quite the sense of direction, huh?" teased (Y/N), who then gestured to the wide area with a sarcastic smirk. "Didn't know that snow could be so warm." She added, when she saw him glaring at her. "Yes, very funny. Let's go." He muttered, opening another corridor. He marched through it, followed by (Y/N). This time, they emerged in the labyrinth of Wonderland. The familiar hedges and rose bushes trigger a feeling of nostalgia as well as dread in Xehanort. He could hear (Y/N) giggling behind him. "Would you like to be trapped here? While it is not the right world, the time certainly is. So it would be easy to leave you behind and no one would be able to rescue you." He threatened and (Y/N) went silent. "Third time's the charm..." They finally arrived in Beast's Castle in the third try. Xehanort let out a sigh of relief, while (Y/N) looked around. "So this is Beast's Castle..." There was snow everywhere. In the distance was a castle, but no lights were on. It was snowing heavily. It was getting dark, which made her worry. "We should look for a place to stay. If we stay out here, then we'll freeze. Or rather, you freeze and I get stuck." Xehanort frowned. "What do you mean by that? You'll freeze too." (Y/N) gestured to her arms. "No, I already am freezing. Just... different. You are not wearing your black coat, so you're not shielded from the cold. I don't feel it. You do." "You don't freeze?" "No. It's always the same cold air to me, so I'm used to it." "That doesn't mean you won't freeze to death." "Listen," she sighed. "My arms a literally coated in ice, I can walk around in a desert and not get a heat stroke. I can walk around the coldest of mountains and not even feel cold. Point is, I don't get cold or hot, so I'll. Be. Fine." Pouting, she pointed at him and added: "But you're not, so let's look for a place to stay. I'm not keen on letting you freeze to death, sir. Now move those legs and get going!" Then she stomped off in the direction of the castle. He blankly stared after her for a few moments, before getting hit by a snowball. Straight in the face. "If you don't move your ass, Xehanort, I'm gonna turn you into a snowman!" (Y/N) called and threw another snowball. Xehanort wiped the snow off his face with an grim expression.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IS BEING EDITED!!!!! DO NOT READ!!!!


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